The Louvre at the MIA

My husband and I visited the Louvre exhibit at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts on Thursday evening. We agreed that this is a wonderful exhibit that Minneapolis is very fortunate to have right here in our backyard. There were a handful of children there that evening enjoying the artwork as well. It was so inspiring to see little ones ranging from 4-7 years old engaged in a dialog about what they were seeing in the imagery or sculpture and overhearing their perspective of the work. It reminded me again to never underestimate the minds of young ones.

The sculpture in the collection is so impressive and breath taking that it caused me to wonder whether work of this magnitude will ever be created again. The passion for the subject and the craft must have been so deep to spend days, weeks and years to complete. This, of course, coupled with the lack of media distractions most likely helped artists focus on the execution of such masterpieces.

After thinking about the amount of time spent on some of the pieces in the exhibit I realized the importance in teaching our children to have patience. It is sometimes a challenge in elementary art to teach children that art is not a race. It can be a exciting process to watch them work on a project over a period of a week or more to see how it evolves for them and how involved they become in thinking about their work.

If you get the chance to see the exhibit at the MIA using the head-sets are a wonderful way to hear more of the explanations and stories about the work. It also allows you to become immersed in the moment of viewing.